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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1353, 22 June 1881, Page 2

A cask of great importance to all local bodies has been heard by the Court of Appeal, which sat in Wellington on the 3rd instant. It appears that one Hendry refused to pay rates to the Hutt County Council, on the grounds that the County Council hiid no right to make a valuation list for a district under the control of a Highway Board, and also that the estimate of works — necessary to be published under Section 107 Counties Act, 1876, — had not been duly notified. His Honor the Chief Justice, after being satisfied that, the judgment given by the Resident Magistrate could be appealed against, gave his decision against the Council, and ruled that a County Council must only use the valuation lists as prepared by the Highway Districts, and not make a list for property in Road Districts ; further, when roads are declared County roads, they must be separately declared, and not the whole of the roads in a district declared County roads by one order. Another point of defence raised by the Council was, " That tho invalidity of the rate as a whole could not prevent the recovery of the rate from individuals." His Honor gave a sound common sense rendering of this Clause (51) of the Rating Act. He said, "It would surely be a monstrous state of things, as never could have been contemplated by the Legislature, that however local bodies exceeded their power, or failed to perform their duties in regard to rates, there could be no remedy against a rate imposed by them."